Review: This is a Review and Issue Statement of two newspaper
stories filed last week on a decree by the Vatican that went into effect after
it was published in the Vatican newspaper, L’ Osservatore Romano. All religious
and non-religious traditions have a right to regulate their own affairs within the tradition. This is protected under Article 18 of
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the 1981 UN
Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance and of
Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.

At times this presents conflicting
issues of concern if such decrees are in conflict with the rule of law and
international human rights standards, such as the International Convention on
the Rights of Women (CEDAW). There are incidents of conflict between the Vatican and
CEDAW standards over issues of reproductive health and the rights of women.
However, in this case, it seems to be a matter of internal dispute within a religious tradition and not a conflict between
human rights and the tradition. Given the changing cultures
in modern society, a decree on excommunication of women priests seems a bit
harsh, especially in light of the recent address by the Pope to the United
Nations General Assembly. Excommunicated Catholics cannot participate in the
sacraments or public ceremonies or hold any ecclesiastical position. A spokeswomen
for a Roman Catholic Women priests organization said this was a positive sign
“that the Vatican
is taking us seriously.”

Closing the Gap - International
Standards for National and Local Applications

Objective: Build understanding and support for
Article 18, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights –Everyone
shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion - and the
1981 UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and
Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. Encourage the United Nations,
Governments, Religions or Beliefs, Academia, NGOs, Media and Civil Society to
consider the rule of law and international human rights standards as essential
for long-term solutions to conflicts based
on religion or belief.

Challenge: In 1968 the United Nations deferred work on an
International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Religious
Intolerance, because of its apparent complexity and sensitivity. In the
twenty-first century, a dramatic increase of intolerance and discrimination on
grounds of religion or belief is motivating a worldwide search to find
solutions to these problems. This is a challenge calling for enhanced dialogue
by States and others; including consideration of an International Convention on
Freedom of Religion or Belief for protection of and accountability by all
religions or beliefs. The tensions in today’s world inspire a question such as:

Should
the United Nations adopt an International Convention on Freedom of
Religion or Belief?

Response: Is it the appropriate moment to
reinitiate the drafting of a legally binding international convention on
freedom of religion or belief? Law making of this nature requires a minimum
consensus and an environment that appeals to reason rather than emotions. At
the same time we are on a learning curve as the various dimensions of the
Declaration are being explored. Many academics have produced voluminous books
on these questions but more ground has to be prepared before setting up of a UN
working group on drafting a convention. In my opinion, we should not try to
rush the elaboration of a Convention on Freedom of Religion or Belief,
especially not in times of high tensions and unpreparedness. - UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Asma Jahangir, Prague
25 Year Anniversary Commemoration of the 1981 UN Declaration, 25 November 2006.

Option: After forty years this may be the time,
however complex and sensitive, for the United Nations Human Rights Council to
appoint an Open-ended Working Group to draft a United Nations Convention on
Freedom of Religion or Belief. The mandate for an Open-ended Working Group
ought to assure nothing in a draft Convention will be construed as restricting
or derogating from any right defined in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights, and the 1981 UN
Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of
Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. One writer has said; “Religion raises the stakes of human conflict much
higher than tribalism, racism, or politics ever can…it casts the differences
between people in terms of eternal rewards and punishments.”

Concept:Separation of Religion or
Belief and State – SOROBAS. The starting point for this concept is the First
Preamble to the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; “Whereasrecognition ofthe inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable
rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice
and peace in the world.It suggests
States recalling their history, culture and constitution adopt fair and equal
human rights protection for all religions or beliefs as described in General
Comment 22 on Article 18, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
UN Human Rights Committee, 20
July 1993 (CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.4):

Article 18: protects theistic,
non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess
anyreligion or belief.
The terms belief and religion are to be broadly construed. Article 18 is
not limited in its application to traditional religions or to religions
and beliefs with international characteristics or practices analogous to
those of traditional religions. The Committee therefore views with concern
any tendency to discriminate against any religion or belief for any
reasons, including the fact that they are newly established, or represent
religious minorities that may be the subject of hostility by a predominant
religious community. Article 18:
permits restrictions to manifest a religion or belief only if such
limitations are prescribed by law and necessary to protect public safety,
order, health or morals, or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.

Dialogue & Education

Dialogue: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki
Moon, at an Alliance of Civilizations Forum said; “Never in our lifetime has
there been a more desperate need for constructive and committed dialogue, among
individuals, among communities, among cultures, among and between nations.” An
author in another setting has said, “The warning signs are clear: unless we
establish genuine dialogue within and among all kinds of belief, ranging from
religious fundamentalism to secular dogmatism, the conflicts of the future will
probably be even more deadly.” There are varying degrees of cooperation,
competition and conflict within and between religions or beliefs. International
Human Rights Standards on Freedom of Religion or Belief is international human
rights law and a code of conduct to promote cooperation, regulate competition
and resolve conflicts. To include the value and use of these International
Standards for world peace is genuine dialogue on freedom of religion or belief

Education: Ambassador Piet de Klerk addressing the Prague 25 Year
Anniversary Commemoration of the 1981 U.N. Declaration said; “Our educational
systems need to provide children with a broad orientation: from the very
beginning, children should be taught that their own religion is one out of many
and that it is a personal choice for everyone to adhere to the religion or
belief by which he or she feels most inspired, or to adhere to no religion or
belief at all.” The 1981 U.N. Declaration states; “Every child shall enjoy the
right to have access to education in the matter of religion or belief in
accordance with the wishes of his parents, and shall not be compelled to
receive teaching on religion or belief against the wishes of his parents, the
best interests of the child being the guiding principle.” Given these
parameters, early childhood education is the time to begin to build tolerance,
understanding and respect for freedom of religion or belief

Extracts: Extracts are presented under the Eight Articles of
the 1981 U.N. Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance and of
Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. Examples of extracts are presented
prior to an Issue Statement for each Review.

Preamble: 1981 United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of
all Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief:

Consideringthat religion
or belief, for anyone who professes either, is one of the fundamental elements
in his conception of life and that freedom of religion or belief should be
fully respected and guaranteed,

Considering that it is essential to promote understanding,
tolerance and respect in matters relating to freedom of religion or belief and
to ensure that the use of religion or belief for ends inconsistent with the
Charter of the United Nations, other relevant instruments of the United Nations
and the purposes and principles of the present Declaration is inadmissible,

The Vatican issued its most explicit
decree so far against the ordination of women priests on Thursday, punishing
them and the bishops who try to ordain them with automatic excommunication.

The decree was written by the Vatican’s
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and published in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, giving it
immediate effect.

A Vatican
spokesman said the decree made the Church’s existing ban on women priests more
explicit by clarifying that excommunication would follow all such ordinations.

Excommunication forbids those affected from
receiving the sacraments or sharing in acts of public worship.

Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock
Theological Center at Georgetown University, said he thought the decree was
meant to send a warning to the growing number of Catholics who favor admitting
women to the priesthood.

“I think the reason they’re dong this is that
they’ve realized there is more and more support among Catholics for ordaining
women, and they want to make clear that this is a no-no,” Reese said.

The Church says it cannot change the rules banning
women from the priesthood because Christ chose only men as his apostles. Church
law states that only a baptized male can be made a priest.

Proponents of women’s ordination say Christ was
only acting according to the social norms of his time.

They cite the letters of Saint Paul, some of the earliest texts of Christianity,
to show that women played important roles in the early church.

Attempts to ordain women priests are highly
unusual. But the archbishop of St.
Louis earlier this year declared three women
excommunicated after an ordination ceremony in his diocese.

Excommunication is usually “ferendae sententiae”,
imposed as punishment.

But some offences, including heresy, schism, and
laying violent hands on the Pope, are considered so disruptive of
ecclesiastical life that they trigger automatic excommunication, or “latae
sententiae.”

The decree says that women priests and the bishops
who ordain them would be excommunicated “latae sententiae.”

This was the same excommunication invoked against
a renegade African archbishop who also broke Vatican
rules when he ordained four married men bishops in 2006.

The archbishop, Emmanuel Milingo, made world
headlines in 2001 for getting married himself in Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s
Unification Church at a mass wedding in a New York hotel. His union was never
recognized by the Catholic Church.

Vatican Asserts Rule that Bars Female
Priests, by Elisabetta Provoledo, New York Times, May 31, 2008.

The decree was a reaction to specific episodes of
“so-called ordinations in various parts of the world,” according to Msgr. Angelo
Amato, the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which
issues the decree. In recent years, dozens of women have been ordained by
individuals acting outside of the church’s authority.

The document was also drafted to give bishops
uniform guidelines on an increasingly contentious matter, as a growing number
of Catholics contest the church’s position that only men can be ordained as
priests.

In an interview for Vatican
Radio Monsignor Amato reiterated that the church did “not feel authorized to
change the will of its founder, Jesus Christ.” The Vatican, he added, felt “in good
company,” because the Orthodox and ancient Eastern churches have also preserved
what he said was a 2,000-year-old tradition.

ISSUE STATEMENT: The Prelude to the 1981 U.N. Declaration
on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on
Religion or Belief states “that religion or belief, for anyone who professes
either, is one of the fundamental elements in his conception of life and that
freedom of religion or belief should be fully respected and guaranteed. At the
same time the prelude considers it essential “to ensure that the use of
religion or belief for ends inconsistent with the Charter of the United
Nations, other relevant instruments of the United Nations and the purposes and
principles of the present Declaration is inadmissible.” These two statements
often are hard to reconcile within the United Nations system.

It is not a conflict with
the Charter of the United Nations and other relevant instruments of the United
Nations to excommunicate Catholic women as priests, or those who ordain them,
but this Prelude to the 1981 U.N. Declaration is an illustration of modern
changing cultures, “one of the fundamental elements in his conception
of life that should be fully respected and guaranteed.” Sexist language such as
this that is not gender neutral and reflects a
conflict of cultures within a religious tradition that is growing and at the
very least, a need by the United Nations to consider a renewed Working Group
for a treaty-based United Nations Convention on Freedom of Religion or Belief.

Reply: The Tandem Project Country & Community Database
collects information worldwide on United Nations Human Rights Bodies. The
information is used for UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Reviews
(UPR); UN Treaty-based Reports; UN Special Procedures, Special Rapporteur Reports.
Click on the link below to open the Database. Read the Instructions & Table
of Contents: scroll to an Article of your choice and click to reply.

The Tandem Project: a non-profit, non-governmental
organization established in 1986 to build understanding and respect for
diversity of religion or belief, and prevent discrimination in matters relating
to freedom of religion or belief. The Tandem Project has sponsored multiple
conferences, curricula, reference materials and programs on Article 18 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – Everyone shall have the
right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion - and the 1981 United
Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and
Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.

The Tandem Project
initiative was launched in 1986 as the result of a co-founder representing the
World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) at a 1984 United
Nations Geneva Seminar, Encouragement ofUnderstanding, Tolerance and Respect in Matters
Relating to Freedom of Religion or Belief, called by the UN
Secretariat on ways to implement the 1981 UN Declaration. In 1986, The Tandem
Project organized the first NGO International Conference on the 1981 UN
Declaration.